Advice desperately needed: family member drowning in debt

[CreditPacMan]

My dad is drowning in debt. He has over $53k in credit card debt spread across 6-7 accounts all of which are 5-6 months delinquent. 

He has no ability to make minimum payments for all cards, but some of them. 90% of his delinquent cards have been closed and a about 2 accounts have been charged off. The rest are all with collection agencies now. 

Do you advice that he tries one of the debt settlement agencies? how well do they work? 

[tcbofade]

Is bankruptcy an option?

[CreditPacMan]

I think he still wants to see if he can work out a payment plan.

His biggest lenders are AMEX and Chase with over $30k between the two. 

He currently works for Uber and has a car loan ($20k left) for which he makes monthly payments. This is his priority since that's how he makes his income. 

[Slowlyrebuilding]

Ok so I went through (and am still recovering) from similar.

I was making my min payments but wasn't getting anywhere. I decided to stop paying most of the cards except the low interest credit unions and Amex. They were all charged off and sent to collections. I ignored the calls until I started getting served court papers. Soooo what I've done:

1) any small balance card I negotiated settlement usually for around 50% of balance

2) I got into a payment plan with the collection agencies. The irony is the 2 collection agencies holding my debt don't charge interest and gave me very low payments.

3) as soon as i could I started consolidating debt with personal loans. But I only did it if the payment was less.

So one year later I'm on the road to recovery. My payments are less per month and I am always looking at ways to get them lower. Any extra I can save I throw at the high interest debt. 

[SlideOrInsert]

the more pressing question might be how can he raise his income? it is a tough conversation to have, been there.

even if a settlement can be made for half on the dollar, that is still $26k is delinquent debt plus $20k in a depreciating vehicle with rising operating costs.

instead of dragging around a payment plan for 3-7 years with no credit, might be best start with a clean slate and try to re-establish.